Staffa

Staffa (, , from the Old Norse word for a stave or pillar) is an island of the Inner Hebrides in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The Vikings gave it the name because its columnar basalt reminded them of their houses, which were constructed using vertical logs.Murray (1973) p. 44

Staffa lies about west of the Isle of Mull. It is in areaThis is Haswell-Smith's estimate. Keay (1994) states . and the highest point is above sea level.

The island came to prominence in the late 18th century after a visit by Sir Joseph Banks. He and his fellow-travellers extolled the natural beauty of the basalt columns and of the island's main sea cavern, which Banks renamed "Fingal's Cave". Their visit was followed by those of many other prominent people during the next two centuries, including John Keats, Queen Victoria and Felix Mendelssohn. The latter's Hebrides Overture brought further fame to the island, which was by then uninhabited. It is now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland.

Geology and pre-history

In prehistoric times (Pleistocene), Staffa was covered by the ice sheets which spread from Scotland out into the Atlantic Ocean beyond the Outer Hebrides. After the last retreat of the ice around 20,000 years ago, sea levels were up to lower than at present. Although the isostatic rise of land makes estimating post-glacial coastlines a complex task, around 14,000 years ago it is likely that Staffa was part of a larger island, just off the coast of mainland Scotland, which would have included what are now Mull, Iona and the Treshnish Isles.Murray (1973) p. 69

Steadily rising sea levels then further isolated this little island, which is entirely of volcanic origin. It consists of a basement of tuff, underneath colonnades of a black fine-grained Paleogene basalt, overlying which is a third layer of 'slaggy' basaltic lava entablature. By contrast, slow cooling of the second layer of basalt resulted in an extraordinary pattern of predominantly hexagonal columns that form the faces and walls of the principal caves. The lava contracted towards each of a series of equally spaced centres as it cooled and solidified into prismatic columns, a process known as columnar jointing. The columns typically have three to eight sides, six being most common. The columns are also divided horizontally by cross joints.Mitchell, Colin and Mitchell, Patrick (2005) Landform and Terrain: The Physical Geography of Landscape Brailsford Press. 3.pdf These columnar jointed sections represent the tops and bottoms of individual lava flows. Between these sections lie regions of much more chaotic jointing, known as the entablature. The origin of the entablature is unknown, but could be due to flooding of the lava flow, causing much more rapid cooling, or the interaction of stress fields from the two regions of columnar jointing as they approach one another.Phillips et al. (2013) The formation of columnar joints produced by cooling in basalt at Staffa, Scotland Bulletin of Volcanology 75:715

Similar formations are found at the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, on the island of Ulva, and at Ardmeanach on the Isle of Mull.Keay & Keay (1994) p. 894 Grooves in the roof of MacKinnon's cave indicate either a pyroclastic flow or a series of eroded ash falls in the rock above the columnar basalt."To Staffa with Ladder" (September 2006) Grampian Speleological Group Newsletter Number 128. Retrieved 9 September 2008. The 'Staffa Group' is the name given to the series of olivine tholeiite basalts found in the vicinity of Mull, which erupted 55–58 million years ago.Bell, B.R. and Jolley, D.W. (1997) Application of palynological data to the chronology of the Palaeogene lava fields of the British Province: implications for magmatic stratigraphy. Journal of the Geological Society. London. Vol. 154, pp. 701–708.

Geography

Staffa lies about 10 kilometres (6 mi) west of Mull, and 9 km northeast of Iona. It is longitudinally oriented north–south, and is a kilometre long by about half a kilometre wide. The circumference is about 3.8 km in extent. In the northeast, the isle shelves to a shore, but otherwise the coast is rugged and much indented; numerous caves have been carved out by rain, streams, and sea. There is enough grass to feed a few cattle, and the island has a spring.

On the east coast are Goat Cave and Clamshell Cave. The latter is 10 m high, about 6 m wide at the entrance, and some 45 m long, and on one side of it, the ridges of basalt stand out like the ribs of a ship. Near this cave is the pyramidal rock islet of Am Buachaille ('The Herdsman'), a pile of basalt columns seen fully only at low tide. Other outlying rocks include Eilean Dubh to the north-west and a series of skerries stretching for half a kilometre to the south-west. On the southwest shore are Boat Cave and Mackinnon's Cave (named after a 15th-century abbot of Iona), which has a tunnel connecting it to Cormorant Cave. These caves lie to the south-west and can be accessed from the bay of Port an Fhasgaidh at low tide. In 1945, a mine exploded near Boat Cave, causing damage to the cliff face, which is still visible. Mackinnon's Cave is 107 metres long.

Staffa's most famous feature is Fingal's Cave, a large sea cave located near the southern tip of the island, some 20 m high and 75 m long, formed in cliffs of hexagonal basalt columns. This cliff face is called the Colonnade or The Great Face and it was these cliffs and their caves that inspired Felix Mendelssohn's Die Hebriden (English: Hebrides Overture opus 26),FINGAL'S CAVE, OPUS 26, Program Notes by Rita Junker Pickar, 2002, Retrieved 21 October 2010. which was premiered in London in 1832.Program Notes: Mendelssohn: "Hebrides" Overture by Geoff Kuenning ucla.edu. Retrieved 10 December 2006. The original Gaelic name for Fingal's Cave is An Uamh Bhin – "the melodious cave" – but it was subsequently renamed after the 3rd-century Irish warrior Fionn MacCool.Keay & Keay (1994) state that the re-naming was done by Banks, although showcaves.com states that Mendelssohn is blamed for the "misnaming".Bray (1996) p. 92 notes that James Macpherson's Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem was a "runaway bestseller" in many European countries at the time, and that Banks may later have regretted his choice when it became clear that Macpherson's claims to have translated the work from an ancient Gaelic manuscript proved to be bogus. Mendelssohn was nonetheless inspired by the sound of the waves in the cave and waxed lyrical about his visit, claiming that he arrived in Scotland "with a rake for folk-songs, an ear for the lovely, fragrant countryside, and a heart for the bare legs of the natives".The New Encyclopædia Britannica (1978) Chicago. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.

History

18th century Little is known of the early history of Staffa, although the Swiss town of Stäfa on Lake Zurich was named after the island by a monk from nearby Iona. Part of the Ulva estate of the MacQuarries from an early date until 1777,Haswell-Smith (2004) p. 124 it was brought to the English-speaking world's attention after a visit by Sir Joseph Banks in August 1772. En route to Iceland in the company of the painter Johann Zoffany, the Bishop of Linköping, and the Swedish naturalist Daniel Solander, Banks (later a president of the Royal Society) was entertained by Maclean of Drummen, on the Isle of Mull. Hearing about Staffa, he resolved to visit and set out from Tobermory the next day. The winds were light, and they did not arrive until darkness had fallen.Bray (1996) pp. 89–90Bray (1996) p. 89 suggests that Banks' companion was a Bishop of Iceland, but this seems unlikely as Cooper (1979) provides him with a name and a bishopric - see note below. Banks wrote:

It was too dark to see anything, so we carried our tent and baggage near the only house on the island, and began to cook our suppers, to be prepared for the earliest dawn, and to enjoy that which, from the conversation of the gentlemen we had, now raised the highest expectations of.Pennant, Thomas (1772) A Tour of Scotland and a Voyage to the Hebrides. London. Benjamin White. Quoted in Bray (1996) p. 90.

They were not disappointed. Despite becoming infested with lice during his short stay on the island, he provided glowing reports of his visit. He confessed that he was:

forced to acknowledge that this piece of architecture, formed by nature, far surpasses that of the Louvre, that of St. Peter at Rome, all that remains of Palmyra and Paestum, and all that the genius, the taste and the luxury of the Greeks were capable of inventing.However, Cooper (1979) p. 26 is unequivocal in stating that this "hyperbole" was penned by The Bishop of Linköping, Uno von Troil, who accompanied Banks.

Samuel Johnson and his protege James Boswell visited clan MacQuarrie on Ulva in 1773, the year after Banks' visit. Perhaps aware that Banks considered that the columnar basalt cliff formations on Ulva called "The Castles" rivalled Staffa'sMacNab, Peter (1993) Mull and Iona: Highways and Byways. Edinburgh. Luath Press. pp. 72–73 Johnson wrote:

When the islanders were reproached with their ignorance or insensibility of the wonders of Staffa, they had not much to reply. They had indeed considered it little, because they had always seen it; and none but philosophers, nor they always, are struck with wonder otherwise than by novelty.Johnson, Samuel (1775) A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. London. Chapman & Dodd. (1924 edition).

Amongst the firstIn fact, Cooper (1979) p 16 states that Faujus was the first such person to be attracted to the Hebrides, but then later (p 26) refers to a prior visit by Uno von Troil in the company of Banks. Perhaps he did not consider Swedish bishops to be sufficiently important to merit this accolade. eminent overseas visitors to Staffa were Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond, a wealthy French zoologist and mineralogist, and the American architect and naturalist William Thornton. Visiting in 1784, they were suitably impressed, Faujus writing: "this superb monument of nature, which concerning its form bears so strong a resemblance to a work of art, though art can certainly claim no share in it."Faujus de Saint Frond, B. A Journey through England and Wales to the Hebrides in 1784, edited by Sir Archibald Geikie (1907) and quoted in Cooper (1979), p. 17.

19th and 20th centuries Subsequently, a stream of famous visitors came to view Staffa's wonders, including Robert Adam, Sir Walter Scott (1810), John Keats (1818), J. M. W. Turner, whose 1830 visit yielded an oil painting exhibited in 1832, William Wordsworth (1833), Jules Verne (1839), Alice Liddell (the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland) in 1878, David Livingstone (1864), Robert Louis Stevenson (1870) and Mendelssohn himself in 1829.Cooper (1979) pp. 52–54 Wordsworth, however, found the volume of tourism disappointing.

Writing more than a century later, the writer W. H. Murray agreed, complaining that the visitors spoiled the "character and atmosphere", and suggesting that "to know Staffa one must go alone".Murray, W.H. (1966) The Hebrides. London. Heinemann. p. 109

Others were more enthusiastic, despite the presence of numerous others. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were rowed into the cave in the royal barge in 1847,Cooper (1979) p. 100Keay & Keay (1994) state 1836, which is unlikely. and The Times correspondent recorded:

Keats complained about the expense of the ferry, but was captivated by what he saw nonetheless. Displeased with his first efforts to describe this "cathedral of the sea", he finally settled on:

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